Month: June 2014

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HRW condemns Laos government’s gross rights violation

Asia Correspondent: 12 June 2104

Sombath Somphone
Laotian activist Sombath Somphone has been missing since 2012.

The Laos government routinely oppresses citizens, stifles basic human rights, and acts with impunity, Human Rights Watch said in a critique issued this week. The organization blasted the Southeast Asian country’s leaders for restricting “fundamental rights including freedom of speech, association, and assembly.” The critique concerns Laos’ failures to live up to recommendations issued in a 2010 Universal Periodic Review. The country is up for another review in October, and HRW believes the last UPR did not address critical areas, including “enforced disappearances; freedom of speech, association, and assembly; the treatment of detainees in drug detention centers; and labor rights.”

The critique notes the tight control the state exerts over the media, and a culture of self-censorship. News programs that encourage debate and discussion of hot-button rights issues are at risk of being shut down, and activists live with the real threat of harm and kidnapping.

HRW emphasized the country’s policy of enforced disappearance, particularly the high-profile case of Sombath Somphone, an activist who has been missing since 2012. Continue reading “HRW condemns Laos government’s gross rights violation”

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人權觀察組織：寮國人權無進展

中央社商情網: 10 六月 2014

（中央社記者林憬屏曼谷2014年6月10日專電）人權觀察組織今天指出，寮國政府無法解決系統性的人權問題，包括嚴重限制基本自由、缺乏勞工權、未起訴就拘禁吸毒嫌犯，公民社會領袖頌巴斯失蹤至今仍令外界關注。

頌巴斯（Sombath Somphone）2012年12月在永珍被警方攔阻後失蹤至今，另一名環保人士宋包（Sompawn Khantisouk）2007年向警方報告後也失蹤。

人權觀察組織（Human Right Watch）亞洲副主任羅伯森（Phil Robertson）透過聲明指出，頌巴斯被強制失蹤，寮國當局以漠視抗拒國際社會對此案的關注，有關各國的政府不應坐視。

聯合國人權理事會今年10月將對寮國進行第2次的「全球定期審議」，檢視人權狀況。

人權觀察組織指出，寮國政府在2010年第1次全球定期審議上作出的承諾，一直無法作出具體改變，寮國應該批准國際人權公約，終止對言論、集會、結社、媒體的限制，寮國的勞工法仍無法達到國際標準。

人權觀察組織表示，寮國政府應該調查並終止毒品拘禁中心濫權的情況，改由有適當醫療、自發性、社區為主的方式，對毒品依賴進行治療。

羅伯森說，寮國政府無法容忍人民持有異議，以傷害人權的法律與長期拘禁避免任何人挑戰它的權力，寮國人民害怕政府，因為他們知道官員幾乎可以不受懲罰。

人權觀察組織今天把寮國的人權紀錄評論提交給聯合國，評論中指控寮國政府無法解決系統性的人權問題。

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Laos: No Progress on Rights

Human Rights Watch: 10 June 2012

Urgently End Disappearances, Systematic Suppression of Basic Freedoms

sombath-somphone
Sombath Somphone, a social activist, was last seen in Vientiane, the capital, in December 2012. There is strong evidence that he was forcibly disappeared by Laotian authorities.

The government of Laos has failed to address the country’s systemic human rights problems, Human Rights Watch said today in a critique of Lao’s human rights record submitted to the United Nations. Laos will appear for the country’s second Universal Periodic Review in October 2014 at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Human Rights Watch highlighted several human rights issues that deserve international attention, including severe restrictions on fundamental liberties, absence of labor rights, and detention of suspected drug users without charge in abusive drug centers. Of particular concern is the forced disappearance of civil society leader Sombath Somphone, in Vientiane in December 2012 after he was stopped by the police, and of an environmentalist, Sompawn Khantisouk, who has been missing since he was ordered to report to a police station in January 2007.

“The Lao authorities are defying international concerns by ignoring calls to respond to the enforced disappearance of activist Sombath Somphone,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director. “Concerned governments need to drive home the point that they will not sit complacently by as disappearances and other abuses multiply in Laos.” Continue reading “Laos: No Progress on Rights”